Season Eight

Contents

Season Eight averaged on live viewing 11.430 million viewers and 2.87 ratings points in the A18-49 demo, and averaged with 7 days worth of recorded viewing added 14.610 million viewers and 4.13 ratings points in the A18-49 demo on CBS.

When a Texas prisoner escapes during a transfer, he leaves behind victims with his unique trademark, sewing their mouths shut, a signature the BAU remembers as unique to the infamous serial killer "The Silencer". While they investigate who he was and who he's become, the BAU also gets to know the newest member of the team.

When the bodies of two seemingly unrelated victims are found just hours apart in San Diego and Los Angeles respectively, the BAU suspects that that not one, but two killers are working together to commit the murders.

When a legless body is found in the New Mexico desert and a second unwilling amputee shows up at the hospital, the BAU team searches for this amateur surgeon before he preys upon his next reluctant victim. Also, Reid's phone calls to a mystery woman have the team intrigued.

When four men go missing in rural Oregon, the BAU searches for a common link among them in order to track them down. Also, JJ becomes upset when her son Henry doesn't want to celebrate Halloween this year.

When prostitutes in Miami are discovered murdered in a similar style to local animals found dead there, the BAU must work fast to find a killer whose confidence is quickly escalating. Also, Morgan tries to increase Reid's athletic skills by convincing him to join the bureau softball team.

The BAU team goes in pursuit of a missing school bus full of students outside the Washington, D.C. area, and it becomes a race against time for them to bring them home safely and to capture their abductor.

The BAU heads south to investigate a fast-moving killer whose signature matches that of a serial killer from thirty years ago. Also, the team learns that someone is keeping track of their cases and replicating crimes they have solved.

When the daughters of Bruce Morrison, a writer whose wife mysteriously vanished a year ago, go missing on the first anniversary of their mother's disappearance, the BAU is brought in to study Morrison as a possible suspect.

The BAU heads to Austin to investigate victims found there with their watches set inaccurately, a clue which may help them find the killer. Meanwhile, the unsub stalking the BAU inches closer in his pursuit of the team.

When a time capsule in a small Colorado town is opened twenty-five years later and contains a gruesome discovery, the BAU investigates the crime and find a possible link to the death of a local police officer.

The BAU is called in to investigate a string of deaths in Manhattan tied to apparent ecstasy overdoses, and Hotch discovers that his estranged brother, Sean, is caught in the middle. Meanwhile, the Replicator begins to zero in on the BAU.

In the fourth episode, Reid got a girlfriend named Maeve Donovan. Unfortunately, she was killed by her stalker in the early half of the season, and the later half was spent with Reid recovering from those traumatic events.

Thomas Gibson and A.J. Cook hinted that "a strange criminal" would be stalking the BAU throughout the entire season. Later on, Erica Messer confirmed that fact, explaining that for the first time, they will be able to feature a season-long unsub, something producers have wanted to do for a while but had never gotten approval on until now. She has also added that "...this guy is replicating crimes we've solved. [...] We'll probably see him five or six times [throughout the season]." The stalker first appeared in the end of The Silencer and was prominent for a total of eight episodes.